AFAIK the conspiracy law has existed for many hundreds of years before even the Northern Ireland troubles or the CJA…
its not a legal precendent that has been set, but what Scotland Yard is pointing out is that their evidence gathering system is now sufficiently robust for the Courts to be able to use online chat as part of evidence to convict people.
In this case its not even as bad as suspected “terrorists” being hauled out of their homes and onto extended remand – the suspects had their day in Court in front of a normal jury and been convicted on the strength of the evidence offered.
TBH all it shows is that the cops have caught up with policing the Internet in the same fashion as any other part of society, which IMO was inevitable and maybe even desirable as its now used by everyone including more vulnerable sections of society.
What I find more disturbing is how a significant minority have abused the freedom of speech, expression and relative anonymity offered by the Internet and modern “Western-style” democracies to plan and commit acts of hate and evil – and when they are caught they take everyone else down with them as we all lose our freedoms 🙁
